Drinking at a party

Illustration: Deesha Lucas - Cambridge Regional College

It’s the end of term and your class mates decide to throw a party to celebrate. You know there will be alcohol at the party but because you are under age you tell yourself that you will stick to soft drinks. When you arrive at the party it’s obvious that there is more alcohol around than you had thought and several people are already drunk.

What do you do next?

Make some excuse and leave straight away

Stay but make sure you stay off the alcohol

Stay and just have a couple of alcoholic drinks to get in the party mood

Read on to find out which of these options you should or shouldn’t take…….

Make some excuse and leave straight away

Obviously this is the best option but realistically how many people would have the confidence to leave? If you can that would be great but if you decide to stay you’ll need to be very careful.

Stay but make sure you stay off the alcohol

If you take this option you will need to be very strong. People who have been drinking can be very determined to get newcomers to the party to drink so be very firm about what you want to do. Also make sure you get all of your own drinks to stop other people ‘adding a bit extra’ to your 7up and don’t leave your drink anywhere as you don’t know if someone has put something in it.

Stay and just have a couple of alcoholic drinks to get in the party mood

Definitely the worst option!! People who do this usually end up drinking more than they intended to because once you have had one or two the alcohol has already started to have an effect on you making it harder for you to control things.

Something you might want to think about:

Alcohol is a factor in 20 – 30% of all accidents, 22% of Accident and Emergency admissions in England

There is a strong connection between teens using alcohol and pregnancy/sexually Transmitted Infections